P. M. Ramakrishnan
In April 2013, Punjab government passed the Punjab Contract Farming Act to provide a legal framework to contract farming. This Punjab Act did not have a provision mandating that sale cannot be below the MSP. In all 14 states already allowed contract farming before Farms Bills.
Then why are Punjab farmers protesting now?
The problem is not MSP – it is the Inter State purchases and sales that can now be made bypassing Mandis. That is what has been changed now. And MSPs only cover few number of agricultural produce. Even milk is not under MSP; neither are fruits and vegetables.
This farmers agitation is manipulated by the “Adhatis”. These “Adhatis” are Commision Agents who also act as Money lenders and who now will stand to lose Rs 2000 crore per year during wheat & paddy procurement season.
Centre’s Farm Laws have rendered them irrelevant as farmers are free from their clutches. By this Modi’s master stroke these biggies in Punjab are rattled.
Food Corporation of India (FCI) buys wheat & paddy worth Rs 80000 crores from Punjab alone. Rs 6500 crore of tax payers’ money goes to Mandis (APMCs). And who controls these Mandis? The Concerns / Firms of these 6000 Adhatis of Punjab control Mandis! They had been earning this much of money without doing any farming work.
Here are the statistics explaining why Punjab is rattled.
Wheat procured by GOI for 2019-20 Rabi Marketing Season was : 129.12 Lakh Metric Ton. Middlemen’s (Adhatis) commission per quintal (100 kg) was – Rs 46. Potential commission (if entire of above quantity is procured through mandis) is – Rs 590+ Crore! (in one season!)
The commission as per APMC Act is 2.5% of the MSP but the GOI has been giving a flat rate of Rs 46 per 100 Kg. Capt Amrinder Singh sahab was batting for these Arthiyas or commission agents even in July 2020 and was asking for 2.5% commission for them. Can one belive this – a Chief Minister is openly asking for commission for middlemen?
Congress party is not a political party; it is a middlemen’s commission party. “Maa beta” used to do the same business of commission for ages: Commission in Defence Deals, chopper deals etc; Bofors scam was born out of the same middlemen’s commission business.
Modiji has now chocked this money flow into their coffers.
Wheat procured in 2020-21 is: 127.14 Lakh MT. MSP – Rs 1,925 per 100 kg. Commission potential for middlemen at 2.5% of MSP (if whole QTY procured at Mandi) – Rs 612 Crore. Potential commission earned at Rs 46 per 100 Kg – Rs 585 Cr only!
This graph (partly ommited here) explains the Punjab “Kishan” agitation.
G1 – Share of Wheat production in Bharat. ….
G2 – Share of Wheat procurement by GOI …
Punjab produces 17.18% of wheat in Bharat but it’s share of GOI’s procurement is more than double at 38.04%. Same goes for Haryana.
And now, look at UP:
G3 – Share of rice production in Bharat….
G4 – Share of rice procurement by GOI…
Punjab produces 10.9% of rice in Bharat but it’s share is 26.8% of total procurement by GOI.
Look at WB in terms of production share versus procurement.
In many states, share of GOI’s procurement is multiple times higher than share of pan-Bharat production.
But this is most pronounced in Punjab and Haryana.
- In case of Punjab and Haryana, rice procurement over last 5-years is 2.44 and 2.28 times their’s share of production in Bharat.
Uttara Khand also has a high share but the underlying quantity of rice produced and bought is very small relative to Punjab or other states. - Studies have recommended that Punjab and Haryana should actually not be growing rice because of its impact on ground-water table.
Madhya Pradesh has had a bumper wheat crop this years, and hence, its share in procurement has gone up this year (33.19%). Otherwise, last 4-year average of its share in wheat procurement is only 19.84%.
Long and short of this story is: western Bharat has better procurement infrastructure, it has access to ground-water recharged by canals, and couple that with free electricity supply, it can produce rice, which is water intensive & can’t be otherwise sustained unlike Eastern Bharat where monsoon permits its growth.
Without MSP, Punjab and Haryana cannot sustain their rice crop as it is not consumed in-house. Similarly, without MSP, wheat production will also suffer from same issue. If GOI does not purchase it, where will they sell their produce? This is the fear of middlemen.
It has been an institutionalised loot:
- of farmers
- of consumers
- of taxpayers
and this all for the sake of some filthy rich farmers / mandi lobbies of Punjab and Haryana. This is the real story of so called protests.